SE's inability to protect players from stalking/harassment

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Originally Posted by ScarletDawn

As long as names are hidden then screenshots are fine but anything that has people name on is due to naming and shaming. Those images I suggest go to support.

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I can leave my own characters names tho, yeah?

IDK why but I read all pages of this thread, and I think my IQ actually dropped during the course of it lol.

Honestly though, as someone who has been stalked multiple times in multiple games, (girl), if you just try not making a big huge scene of it and go on about your gaming life, they do eventually go cling onto someone else. Throwing a tantrum and making a scene and being toxic in return only feeds them. [and yep I even had one (not from FF14) hack my account and post my irl addy and then show up to my irl house, and I held them at gunpoint till the cops came]. Don't feed the trolls, it's just a game, and if they show up irl then call the police. Done.

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Originally Posted by AiUsagi

I can leave my own characters names tho, yeah?

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I mean nothing wrong with showing your own name.

https://imgur.com/a/1x7SzeY
Please, someone explain to me how this wasn't enough for SE to respond to her harassment? She was literally standing in MY FC house.

https://imgur.com/a/UKbln71

If I had to guess it is because if you used the tools like the blacklist feature then they would not have been able to talk with you, and if you had your house locked then they would not be able to enter. Do not have my glasses and the font is kinda blurry for my eyes, but honestly seems like this from an in game POV could have been solved with the tools they already have in place.

Edit: In short stop engaging with them, close off your house and let it go. You are fueling this by making a scene.

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Originally Posted by Bobby66

If I had to guess it is because if you used the tools like the blacklist feature then they would not have been able to talk with you, and if you had your house locked then they would not be able to enter. Do not have my glasses and the font is kinda blurry for my eyes, but honestly seems like this from an in game POV could have been solved with the tools they already have in place.

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It doesn't solve anything because she would just make an alt and loiter outside the property. She can still comment to me when she is blacklisted via the message book, so I still fail to see how the blacklist system is affective? I could lock the FC house, but again, how is that fair to me or my entire FC when we should be able to play this game harassment free. It's not right that I have to lock out everyone else because SE is incapable of proper mediation or providing features that would prevent this kind of stuff. Again, I wouldn't have been harassed if I was able to hide my location and my affiliations. I've done what I can to avoid the harassment/stalking. It is Square Enix that needs to realize their failures and do something to fix them so everyone can enjoy the game and not have to choose between being harassed by having an open house, or excluding everyone else entirely. It's total BS.

EDIT/ This forum is intended to raise awareness to these problems in game and my situation will serve as an example. Square Enix needs to fix their jank.

This thread makes me really scared for women in gaming :(

Just ignore? Like don't even acknowledge they exist its what I do when someone says something to me I dont like, I pretend they are not there.

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Originally Posted by ScarletDawn

Just ignore? Like don't even acknowledge they exist its what I do when someone says something to me I dont like, I pretend they are not there.

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I've tried everything; crazy fuels itself.
Edit/ But yes, logically that should work.

I too have been in there receiving end of stalking in the game, but as a man. Just wanted to go check out my static’s fc house and i had someone following me checking where i was 24/7. It was pretty scary tbh and the fact there’s not much that can be done for this is sad :/

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Originally Posted by AiUsagi

It doesn't solve anything because she would just make an alt and loiter outside the property. She can still comment to me when she is blacklisted via the message book, so I still fail to see how the blacklist system is affective? I could lock the FC house, but again, how is that fair to me or my entire FC when we should be able to play this game harassment free. It's not right that I have to lock out everyone else because SE is incapable of proper mediation or providing features that would prevent this kind of stuff. Again, I wouldn't have been harassed if I was able to hide my location and my affiliations. I've done what I can to avoid the harassment/stalking. It is Square Enix that needs to realize their failures and do something to fix them so everyone can enjoy the game and not have to choose between being harassed by having an open house, or excluding everyone else entirely. It's total BS.

EDIT/ This forum is intended to raise awareness to these problems in game and my situation will serve as an example. Square Enix needs to fix their jank.

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Reality is you could simply ignore their alts, and report them for bypassing your BL by creating new alts. Sure it is unfair to your FC but that is the reality of the situation if you locked your FC house even if they are on your plot standing around but I doubt standing around on someone’s plot is considered harassment.

Sure you may be trying to bring awareness but on the other token you are fueling their behavior. Passed off the messages clearly they are out to get your reaction and they are probably enjoying this more then you could imagine. You can place all the blame you want on SE, but as it is has been said many times this is not a new issue and nothing has been done about it. Sorry your situation is not unique or special and I doubt they are going to fix it because you are bringing awareness to the issue. It is up to you to protect yourself and no one else if that means inconveniencing your FC so be it I am sure they would understand. Do not get me wrong sure it will be annoying to keep black listing and reporting but that is the most you can actively do.

Is there to at least ask square to allow a key system like swtor has? You give people a key to your house depending of what permission you want them to have, and you can delete that key and ban them from your house if they get too rowdy. I know it wont fix them making a million alts, but than they would just need to log the person. I think we have a unique code do we not for our accounts? I know playstation has an id but I am sure there may be a similar thing server side they have so they know whose account or mac address or ip address is connecting to their service. Most of these people will just use the same account not even buy a new one, I feel like this should be easy to implement.

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Originally Posted by Bobby66

Reality is you could simply ignore their alts, and report them for bypassing your BL by creating new alts. Sure it is unfair to your FC but that is the reality of the situation if you locked your FC house even if they are on your plot standing around but I doubt standing around on someone’s plot is considered harassment.

Sure you may be trying to bring awareness but on the other token you are fueling their behavior. Passed off the messages clearly they are out to get your reaction and they are probably enjoying this more then you could imagine. You can place all the blame you want on SE, but as it is has been said many times this is not a new issue and nothing has been done about it. Sorry your situation is not unique or special and I doubt they are going to fix it because you are bringing awareness to the issue. It is up to you to protect yourself and no one else if that means inconveniencing your FC so be it I am sure they would understand. Do not get me wrong sure it will be annoying to keep black listing and reporting but that is the most you can actively do.

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How long is long enough that victims stop being held responsible for their abuse and when do the abusers face repercussions? My situation seems rather extreme, and like most people bring up, most abusers get bored and move on- mine has continued for 2yrs- with or without interaction. It really makes no difference and it's really messed up that Square Enix just allows for these kinds of things to keep occuring. My situation may not be special, but most people are simply complaining. I admit 100% that I am complaining right now, but I am also advocating and encouraging others to speak out about their issues and bring up ideas that may help SE change their damned features. It may do nothing, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised due to how diligent they've been already regarding how "serious" they take stalking and harassment, but it's worth a shot. My abuser isn't going to stop anyways, so I may as well advocate for changes in the forum while the abuse continues, which is, btw what SE encourages people to do- provide feedback and commentary in the forums.

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Originally Posted by AiUsagi

How long is long enough that victims stop being held responsible for their abuse and when do the abusers face repercussions? My situation seems rather extreme, and like most people bring up, most abusers get bored and move on- mine has continued for 2yrs- with or without interaction. It really makes no difference and it's really messed up that Square Enix just allows for these kinds of things to keep occuring. My situation may not be special, but most people are simply complaining. I admit 100% that I am complaining right now, but I am also advocating and encouraging others to speak out about their issues and bring up ideas that may help SE change their damned features. It may do nothing, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised due to how diligent they've been already regarding how "serious" they take stalking and harassment, but it's worth a shot. My abuser isn't going to stop anyways, so I may as well advocate for changes in the forum while the abuse continues, which is, btw what SE encourages people to do- provide feedback and commentary in the forums.

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Truth. But I have seen a few banned for their stalking to players, so I don't think it is totally ignored, they should do more. Some are just off completely. One guy said the market board was HIS and he was harassing and acting out over me USING IT. I don't even know how to deal with that level of odd.

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Originally Posted by AiUsagi

How long is long enough that victims stop being held responsible for their abuse and when do the abusers face repercussions? My situation seems rather extreme, and like most people bring up, most abusers get bored and move on- mine has continued for 2yrs- with or without interaction. It really makes no difference and it's really messed up that Square Enix just allows for these kinds of things to keep occuring. My situation may not be special, but most people are simply complaining. I admit 100% that I am complaining right now, but I am also advocating and encouraging others to speak out about their issues and bring up ideas that may help SE change their damned features. It may do nothing, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised due to how diligent they've been already regarding how "serious" they take stalking and harassment, but it's worth a shot. My abuser isn't going to stop anyways, so I may as well advocate for changes in the forum while the abuse continues, which is, btw what SE encourages people to do- provide feedback and commentary in the forums.

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That is the thing if you just keep ignoring them the most they will get is one a couple of messages to you. I do not have a house but if you lock the house how would they be able to leave messages about you?

Tbh your situation is not that extreme, it is unfortunately more common then it should be, though the difference is from experience often people just ignored it and moved on, if you do not fuel the fire, going to their FC leader, their “bf” creating a post adds fuel to the fire you are bringing attention to their behavior. I have had friends get harassed similar to you, we just got together bought them a brand new account and we all made alts on a new server to play with them. Granted road to 70 made this easier but sometimes as the victim you need to take extreme measures like uprooting to avoid harassment.

Based off your screen shots once they messaged you and you ignored them how far could it have gone? Also sure the forums are their to provide feedback, but if that feedback comes at the cost of adding fuel to the harasser I do not personally think it is worth it tbh, though do you as mentioned in other posts.

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Originally Posted by Bobby66

That is the thing if you just keep ignoring them the most they will get is one a couple of messages to you. I do not have a house but if you lock the house how would they be able to leave messages about you?

Tbh your situation is not that extreme, it is unfortunately more common then it should be, though the difference is from experience often people just ignored it and moved on, if you do not fuel the fire, going to their FC leader, their “bf” creating a post adds fuel to the fire you are bringing attention to their behavior. I have had friends get harassed similar to you, we just got together bought them a brand new account and we all made alts on a new server to play with them. Granted road to 70 made this easier but sometimes as the victim you need to take extreme measures like uprooting to avoid harassment.

Based off your screen shots once they messaged you and you ignored them how far could it have gone? Also sure the forums are their to provide feedback, but if that feedback comes at the cost of adding fuel to the harasser I do not personally think it is worth it tbh, though do you as mentioned in other posts.

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Again, bringing up the fact that the only solution is to leave the server entirely or quit the game? That makes zero sense to me. The fact of the matter is, there should be more to prevent people from having to do that. I have locked and unlocked my FC doors several times, but I really shouldn't have to continue making that decision when the blacklist feature should have been enough to prevent this kind of harassment.
In any case, its probably best we just agree to disagree? To an extent I agree that it is the responsibility of the victim to do what's best for them, but its also that it is 100% wrong on behalf of square enix to allow this kind of behavior to continue unchecked. People who would abuse other people deserve to face repercussions for their actions and if SE claims to take that as seriously as they do, then why do their features contradict what they say?

It is important to highlight the failings of the friend / blacklist system, and SE really needs to fix parts of it, but it's sad that your personal drama is now being hashed out in the forums as well. You both need to grow up and just walk away from each other completely.

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Originally Posted by Skivvy

It is important to highlight the failings of the friend / blacklist system, and SE really needs to fix parts of it, but it's sad that your personal drama is now being hashed out in the forums as well. You both need to grow up and just walk away from each other completely.

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Yes, thank you. I really hope that SE implements some better features for its players soon! There are far too many loopholes that can be abused for the blacklist system to be affective.

Still impersonating my character on a trial account and harassing my FC and friends.
https://imgur.com/063eWjv

https://imgur.com/RuSASNg
On my friend's FC book

I hardly even play this game anymore; just stop already.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-with-stalkers

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Originally Posted by AiUsagi

Still impersonating my character on a trial account and harassing my FC and friends.
https://imgur.com/063eWjv

https://imgur.com/RuSASNg
On my friend's FC book

I hardly even play this game anymore; just stop already.

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And I assume you've reported this to SE.

If they are harassing, you thru your FC house maybe block the entry to it. To report them keep track on the time and date it happens then take screen shots of it happening. I did that and it took only 2 days for them to be banned. They need to make it where free trial accounts can't use world travel or database travel.

The blacklist system needs to be revisited. I agree.

The most reporting I have ever done in this game was just reporting bots.
Gathering bots, under the world bots killing mobs, treasure map bots, and even a bot doing FATES in Endwalker recently.

The GMs never respond back to those reports. Which makes sense.

However they did respond right away when there was a report about a mentor in Labyrinth of the Ancients who blew up on a newbie healer for rescuing him from Ancient Flare. The healer was new and was trying to help but didn't know the negative opinions about the rescue ability and got completely torn into. I reported that mentor and a GM and handled the situation ASAP.


Basically what I am saying is that they probably will ignore a lot of mild occurrences. Which I can understand. If they got so many reports; they have to focus on the most urgent ones. I agree with you that updating the blacklist system will help relieve a lot of reporting, but until happens; you're stalker has to do something drastic enough to where they have to pay attention to your situation. I am sorry that this is happening to you in the first place.

The solution is to allow one's lodestone profile to be set to hidden. The lodestone is simply tied to way too much character data for what little use it has outside of the Mogstation.

Yes, of course.

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Originally Posted by hagare

And I assume you've reported this to SE.

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SE is literally known to barely if at all deal with harassement, everyone I know that has dealt with it in the past had no solution from SE because its bypassed by making new accounts or alts on an alt account, or they just dont act at all, which is what happens in most cases.

Also remove the fixed lodestone link even after a world change or DC change, and remove the fixed friendlist too that people can still see you even after you move datacenter, and after they have removed you from their friend list. It's literally a red carpet for stalkers and it needs to go.

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Originally Posted by Stormpeaks

SE is literally known to barely if at all deal with harassement, everyone I know that has dealt with it in the past had no solution from SE because its bypassed by making new accounts or alts on an alt account, or they just dont act at all, which is what happens in most cases.

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then you report them again.
you don't stop.
Or is your solution to not do anything?

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Originally Posted by hagare

then you report them again.
you don't stop.
Or is your solution to not do anything?

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The solution is to stop stalking and harassment by letting people finally get free from it, change the friend list so once you name change or world change/dc change, your name is removed, and change this outdated fixed lodestone link that is letting anyone track your name and world even after you name change.
However reporting them to SE is an absolute waste of time as they dont do anything.

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Originally Posted by Stormpeaks

The solution is to stop stalking and harassment by letting people finally get free from it, change the friend list so once you name change or world change/dc change, your name is removed, and change this outdated fixed lodestone link that is letting anyone track your name and world even after you name change.
However reporting them to SE is an absolute waste of time as they dont do anything.

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What you say are some solutions, that the stalker can also use to avoid punishment.

But the fact that they needed to make a bypass after being reported shows that SE did do something.
Why would they need to bypass it otherwise?
But if they come back to harass you again after that and you decide to do nothing. *shrug*

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Originally Posted by hagare

What you say are some solutions, that the stalker can also use to avoid punishment.

But the fact that they needed to make a bypass after being reported shows that SE did do something.
Why would they need to bypass it otherwise?
But if they come back to harass you again after that and you decide to do nothing. *shrug*

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"can also use to avoid punishment"

how ? In what other game is there a fixed link to your character page, showing all of your world info and your guild/fc ? It's not a thing anywhere because it facilitates stalking and tracking, FFXIV is the only game with this

And I never said that SE did anything, they bypass the blacklist mostly, be it on their main account or on other accounts, as I said, I have met enough people that dealt with harassment in this game, especially as its so social oriented, and SE is absolutely known for doing absolutely nothing about it, their support is easily the worst across all MMO's or close to the worst.

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Originally Posted by Stormpeaks

"can also use to avoid punishment"

how ? In what other game is there a fixed link to your character page, showing all of your world info and your guild/fc ? It's not a thing anywhere because it facilitates stalking and tracking, FFXIV is the only game with this

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The same way they use alt accounts.
So you can't just check their lodestones and make a note of who to blacklist?

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Originally Posted by Stormpeaks

And I never said that SE did anything, they bypass the blacklist mostly, be it on their main account or on other accounts, as I said, I have met enough people that dealt with harassment in this game, especially as its so social oriented, and SE is absolutely known for doing absolutely nothing about it, their support is easily the worst across all MMO's or close to the worst.

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they made enough alts to fill the blacklist?
Dang. 200 names.

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Originally Posted by hagare

The same way they use alt accounts.
So you can't just check their lodestones and make a note of who to blacklist?



they made enough alts to fill the blacklist?
Dang. 200 names.

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That's obviously not what I meant for the second post, once again, you never had stalker(s) and that's fine, I am more than happy for you.

As for the first post, same result really, you have no clue of what you're talking about, and that's okay, I am glad for you that you never dealt with it.

Agree to disagree.

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Originally Posted by Stormpeaks

That's obviously not what I meant for the second post, once again, you never had stalker(s) and that's fine, I am more than happy for you.

As for the first post, same result really, you have no clue of what you're talking about, and that's okay, I am glad for you that you never dealt with it.

Agree to disagree.

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I'm still impressed they made 200 characters.
Good luck with your stalker problem.

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Originally Posted by hagare

The same way they use alt accounts.
So you can't just check their lodestones and make a note of who to blacklist?

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The solutions people are asking for don't have to effect SE's ability to act on reports. A report against a specific name should still pull up a character that used to be named that and they could see that said person changed their name.

Not just the lodestone, but also the player search. I believe this is what they are most abusing to harass me with; it provides my location and my free company location. Likewise for lodestone, which they can use to see a list of every player in that free company to stalk/harass them as well.

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Originally Posted by AiUsagi

Not just the lodestone, but also the player search. I believe this is what they are most abusing to harass me with; it provides my location and my free company location. Likewise for lodestone, which they can use to see a list of every player in that free company to stalk/harass them as well.

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But is this player stalking other members of your free company in addition to yourself, or are they simply showing up at the FC house? Being at the FC house by itself is not stalking. It might be harassment depending on what they do when they are there.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

But is this player stalking other members of your free company in addition to yourself, or are they simply showing up at the FC house? Being at the FC house by itself is not stalking. It might be harassment depending on what they do when they are there.

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They have written in my FC members personal books, and the FC house book. Impersonating my character, and calling my character names in these books.

Just did a quick lodestone search of my name and found these impersonation trials; all of them besides my character is below lvl5.
https://imgur.com/56an3x5

Continue to black list them. Keep houses locked unless inviting in friends. Keep messages in the message book private until you view them and remove anything offensive. I know this will be hard but don't give them anymore acknowledgement here, promoting action against harassment is fine. But posting what they are doing is like feeding a troll. If you feel the need to respond in game just reply with lol and ignore them.

Thanks for the feedback, I will continue to advocate for changes within FFXIV's policy.